Kids Get Crafty – Christmas Baubles

December 15, 2010

Red Ted and I got all Christmas crafty again this week – we love DIY Christmas Ornaments. Well, we are in the middle of advent and I find that Christmas is a really special time of year to craft together. I love our little craft today, as it is another great way to “use kid’s art” and make something with it. We made these paper Christmas baubles. Red Ted not only enjoyed painting, he also enjoyed the sticking. Of course I had to help him.. but read on for how we fared.

These ornaments feature in our new Christmas Ornament Book. 30 of our favourite ornaments brought together in one place. Sorted by age. Each craft is shared on one page – making the perfect worksheet print outs. Lovely to have them all in one place too!

The Book

This a little book that will be going into Red Ted’s Christmas stocking – it is a story AND a bauble in one! I know, it is a little cheesy, but that is what stockings are for! This little book tells the story from the point of view of the 3 wise men. There are 3 others in the series (Joseph’s, Mary’s and the Shepard’s). It is not a well known fact that I am actually half Spanish and in Spain, traditionally, the gifts are brought on the 6th January by the 3 Wise Men (think about it, it makes sense!). For this reason, I thought it would be nice to have a little book that focusses on the 3 Wise Men. It’s very sweet.

How to Make Paper Baubles (Video)

How to Make Paper Baubles (step by step photos)

The craft, I believe is really easy and quite effective.

Materials: Paper, paint, ribbon, scissors, glue

1) Do some painting or drawing. I findthe stiffer the paper the better these work

2) Cut out 8-10 circle. You need to cut these as perfectly as possible for the finished effect to be at its best. We used a small cup to trace the circles

3) Fold circles in half. Make a good crease.

4) Stick the left side one to the right side of the other. I found that if I held them for Red Ted he could do all the sticking. When you get to the last one, add the ribbon. Then glue the first circle to the last

5) Even them all out a bit, if necessary add a tiny bit more glue and done!

These make lovely gifts for family too. Add a little note in the corner saying which child made it, what year and what age…

The tree was made on the same principle – but with thicker card and only 5 sides.

Good thinking to paint first and THEN cut! I tried this with stars, but cut out the stars first. My kids would only color one side of the stars, and would NOT under any circumstances let me turn them into 3D ornaments!

I love finding uses for kids’ random paintings. These look fun, and I especially love that they would fit the “style” of our tree. I also really like the idea of the books told by different viewpoints.

Very cute! I had been planning on making paper balls like these–first I was going to make them out of orange paper for pumpkins or red paper for pumpkins and then I wanted to make them for Christmas ornaments but I never get around to cutting the circles!

[…] Christmas Paper Baubles from Red Ted Art – With paper showing up again on my crafting list, yes, I like working with paper. The kids love the paper trees we made thanks to Making Lemonade. These paper baubles are similar and perfect for the bits of leftover wrapping paper that I hate to throw away. […]

[…] books out of her reach. The ornaments were made using two tutorials. The first can be found at Red Ted Art the second can be found at Things to Make and Do. We also made some classic paper airplanes out of […]